
Class. 



Book__ 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/bookofserpentOOhowa 



The BOOK of 
the SERPENT 



BY 



KATHARINE HOWARD 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1912 



Foreign Rights Reserved 
Translation Rights Reserved 



Copyright, 1912 
Sherman, French &> Company 



©CU328386 



TO 
EMILY PRENTISS TOLL 



SCENE 
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD 

SPEAKING CHARACTERS 

HE 

THE SERPENT 

THE TURTLE 

THE GRASSHOPPER 

THE BIRD 

THE WOMAN 

THE MAN 

SOME FLAMINGOES 



The BOOK of 
the SERPENT 



FIRST 

Among the rocks there was a hollow 
where He had His working place. 

The splintered rocks were as a wall be- 
tween Him and the Seas, and the fierce 
Winds which roamed beyond came tame 
to Him. 

The place was full of quietness and 
warm with the Sun's warmth. 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper sang 
pleasantly. . . . And all the days 
were happiness — and all the nights were 
rest. 



SECOND 

He worked every day at something. 
It was fun to watch Him — everything 
was so interesting. The Turtle looked on 
and admired, and the Grasshopper rubbed 
his knees violently whenever he liked any- 
thing especially well. 

He made the dust into little heaps 
first, and they kept asking questions. — 
"What's this heap for," and, "What's 
that heap for?" One heap was quite a 
distance away from the others. — 
"What's this heap for?" they asked. He 
was busy, but they had much curiosity 
and kept asking. — "Now, don't bother 
me," He said, "that's Artists, I'm going 
to make Artists out of that." 

They were very interested and watched 
Him closely, but they could not see Him 
put anything different in it from what 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 3 

He had put in the other heaps. But they 
saw Him take some of the dust away and 
make little vacant places here and there. 
"That must be the way He is making 
them," said the Grasshopper, — "just by 
taking things out, that's a jolly receipt." 

The Serpent was passing by and heard 
them talking, so he sat on his tail and 
watched them over the wall of rock — it 
looked so interesting that he came over. 

"Oh!" he said, "that's elimination,— 
it's the easiest way to make things. 
First you make, and then you simplify, — 
it's not so hard to be a Creator, and make 
things. You start them all alike, and 
then you take something out of one heap 
and put it in another and you take more 
things out of some heaps than you do out 
of others. Oh! it's easy to be a Creator; 
why don't you set up for yourselves?" 

Just then He looked up and saw the 
Serpent. He said, "Run along, now, I 
don't want to hear any of your Socialistic 



4 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

ideas." And he chased him away. 

The Serpent trailed off — right through 
the middle of the Artist heap. 

"Oh! Oh!" said the Turtle, "now 
that's spoiled, isn't it too bad." He 
didn't say anything for a minute and then 
He looked amused. "Well! Well!" He 
said, "that's just the thing, that signature 
is hard to forge." 



THIRD 

He was in the hollow among the rocks 
again and He was working very hard 
this time on just one heap. He kept put- 
ting things in and He seemed especially 
interested. Every once in a while He 
sighed to Himself, and finally a great tear 
dropped into the centre of the heap. 

They said, "When you made the Artist 
mud, you took things out, and now you 
put things in. Why do you do that? 
What are you going to make now?" 

He said, "I'm going to make Mothers 
out of this heap." 

"But," they said, "the Serpent told us 
it was the best way to take things out, and 
you are putting them in." 

"Well," He said, "maybe the Serpent 
doesn't know the receipt for Mothers. — 
You needn't worry because I don't take 



6 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

things out — that will be done afterward 
— and there won't be much of anything 
left, except the tear I just dropped 
in." ... 



FOURTH 

He was in his working place among the 
rocks, but He was not working this time. 
He was just thinking. When he made 
Man He had thought, "Now I have some- 
thing to be proud of, something which 
will be a credit to me." He had made 
monkeys and monkeys for studies when 
He had the Man idea, and finally He 
made Man. "Now," He said, "I have a 
friend and pretty soon I'll take him into 
partnership." 

It was strange, but often after He had 
made things there seemed to be a lot in 
them that He had not put there and the 
more pains He took with them the less 
they seemed to belong to Him — it was 
hard to keep on making things when they 
acted this way. After a while He took 
courage. He said, "If I keep on try- 



8 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

ing, perhaps I'll get something good." 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper were 
glad when they saw him look cheerful 
again, — the monkeys all looked cheerful, 
too. Somehow He took much comfort 
with the monkeys, although they were 
only studies. . . . They never talked 
back at Him and called Him out of His 
name as Man did. 

He was still thinking about Man. 
The Turtle heard Him say "He seems to 
know more than I do. At the rate things 
lare going, I may have to* resign alto- 
gether." ; 

"But you have us," said the Turtle, 
"why don't you take us and start another 
World where we won't have Man to in- 
terfere with us?" 

"Yes, do, please do," said the Grass- 
hopper. 

He thought a while longer, and then 
He went to work. He sifted the dust 
three times to be sure that there was not 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 9 

anything wrong with it and then He 
sifted it all over again. 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper were 
very much excited. "What? Oh! what 
are you making?" they said. "You were 
never so careful before." 

"Well," He said, "I don't just know. 
— I'm using Man for, a study and I don't 
exactly know, but something to beat Man, 
and I'm going to call it Woman. It is 
my intention that when I get it made it 
will keep him so busy that he won't have 
time to bother me." . . . 



FIFTH 

They were so interested and so sym- 
pathetic that He told them this time, be- 
fore they asked, that He was making 
Financiers. 

"Why do you make them?" said the 
Turtle. 

"Yes, why?" said the Grasshopper. 

He looked puzzled — "Well — there 
must be a reason," He said, "when it 
comes to that why — did I make you?" 

"Oh!" they said, "that's funny, how 
could you make things at all if you didn't 
have some one to look on — that's why 
you made us, isn't it?" 

"Well!" He said, "there's truth in that 
— one can work better with apprecia- 
tion." 

"Yes," they said, "it's pretty near the 

same as if we made the things ourselves." 
10 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 11 

He didn't sift the dust this time. 
They remarked about that — they said, 
"That's the same way you made pigs." 

"That's all right," He said. "The 
same essentials, — and don't talk so much, 
you disturb me. I've got to think hard 
to get the idea because, of course, there 
is an idea." 

The Turtle retired into his house and 
thought, and thought. The Grasshopper 
sat away back in his knees and thought, 
and thought. 

Finally He began to work again. He 
kept taking out handfuls of dust here and 
there and moulding them and putting 
them back again. He said they were 
Chances, because He did not feel quite 
sure that they would not turn out Pigs. 

"Oh!" said the Turtle, "I can't get the 
idea, — I'm so tired trying." 

"Nor I, either," said the Grasshopper. 

"Well!" He said, "perhaps there isn't 
any Idea. We'll just let it go at 
Chances." 



SIXTH 

He was weary. The Turtle and the 
Grasshopper, too, were weary because He 
had not been working for a long time, and 
He was getting into the habit of not 
working, so the Turtle and the Grass- 
hopper were very miserable. There was 
no more happiness. They kept begging 
Him to make some happiness, but He told 
them — He could not, "it was something 
that had to go and come and be free." 

"But," they said, "we used to have a 
lot of it. Why did it come then?" 

"We were so interested when you 
worked, and how we used to sing," said 
the Grasshopper. 

"I know," said the Turtle, "it was 

working and singing at the same time, 

that made the happiness." 

They were so sympathetic with Him. 
12 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 13 

They said, "Don't feel so bad about that 
last thing you made." 

"But," He said, "it's such a puzzle." 

"Yes," said the Grasshopper, "it's such 
a puzzle." 

"It was that day after you made 
Woman and she kept changing her 
mind," said the Turtle. 

"Yes," He said, "I thought I'd take 
her and Man for models and see what 
came of it." 

"Yes, and when you had finished it, 
She said it was a genius, and you said it 
was a puzzle, and She said, "Of course it's 
a puzzle, stupid ... all geniuses 
are puzzles." 



SEVENTH 

They were out on the rocks, on the 
edge of the World. There was a Tem- 
pest and He reached up and took a 
streak of lightning from the clouds, and 
played with it. The Woman saw Him, 
and she coaxed Him for it. She played 
with it a while, and then she grew afraid 
and gave it to the man. He also played 
with it and did curious and wonderful 
things. 

The Serpent came wriggling over the 
wall of rocks. He looked at the light- 
ning, and he said, "It's dangerous, it's 
electricity, it's lif e and perhaps it's death." 

Man was just going to let it alone, but 
the Woman laughed a little rippling 
laugh and said, "Are you afraid?" So 
he kept on fooling with it, and then some- 
thing happened, and there wasn't any- 

14 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 15 

thing but the Turtle, and the Grasshop- 
per, and rocks, and Sea and Sky, and a 
Great Wind that shook and trembled. 
They were afraid. They crept close to 
Him in a corner of the rocks, and He put 
his hand over them while the Wind went 
by and comforted them, so they were not 
afraid. . . . 



EIGHTH 

It was the next morning, — the morn- 
ings were long then. The Sun shone 
warm upon the rocks and the Grasshop- 
per and the Turtle were happy, — they 
were alone with Him. 

There was a happy silence — just the 
splash of ripples against the rocks, and 
little clouds were flying by. . . . He 
reached, and took one in His hand and 
shaped it into a Bird and let it fly again. 
He said to the Bird, "Go, search above the 
rocks for Woman, for now I am refreshed 
and I will work again." And when the 
Bird was gone, they rested on the rocks 
and they were happy, for all was peace. 

He ran his fingers caressingly along 
the streaks of sunshine on the rocks and 
where He touched the sunshine, flowers 
sprang up. 

16 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 17 

He said, "These things are beautiful." 
They said, "We did not see you make 
them." 

"Oh! No!" He said, "I did not make 
them — they sprang from happiness — I 
love them" — and then a Fragrance came 
from them in answer to his love. 



NINTH 

It was evening and the Bird returned 
and said, "I have found Woman, — she is 
alive upon the rocks, and she has Man 
with her. He was afloat upon the waters 
and she has brought him up upon the 
rocks and he is dead." 

They went to find her, and the Bird 
flew on before to show the way, and when 
they found them, she had covered his body 
with her long thick hair to make him 
warm. 

She held him close, and called to him, 
and finally she kissed him on the mouth. 

She kissed him long and tenderly, and 
he drew in her breath and lived. 

And He said, "She has given him life, 
She has forgotten self — and She shall be 
the Mother of a Race." 

18 



TENTH 

The Sun shone hot upon the rocks and 
the Turtle said to Him, "You made my 
house so I could sit inside and be cool. 
Do you remember? At first I could run 
in and out at will, and then when you 
made monkeys they were so mischievous, 
that they ran off with my house and hid 
it, whenever I left it out of sight, and so 
you fastened it to me. I wish you could 
make something to keep it cool, it gets so 
hot sometimes." 

"And me, too," said the Grasshopper, 
"I, too, wish to keep cool when the sun 
is hot." 

He said, "To-morrow it shall be as you 
desire." 

The next day there were cool green 
rushes and other green things growing 
among the rocks. They were so pleased, 

19 



20 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

the Turtle sang his song and the Grass- 
hopper jumped for joy. ' 

"What is its name?" the Turtle asked. 

"Please name it for me," said the 
Grasshopper. "I feel as if I'd always 
had it." 

"What did you make it of," the Turtle 
asked. 

"The same as you, of dust," He said. 

The Serpent, who was half asleep, mur- 
mured, "All flesh is grass." 



ELEVENTH 

It was warm on the rocks and the Ser- 
pent was asleep. The Turtle and the 
Grasshopper were happy because He was 
working. He was making some experi- 
ments, and all was peaceful and pleasant. 
The Serpent opened his eyes and 
stretched himself and yawned. He said, 
"I could tell you a story about a Garden, 
a Tree and an Apple — and Woman and 
me. — Oh! Yes! and Man, too, — only he 
doesn't count for much in it." 

"What's a Tree?" asked the Grass- 
hopper. 

"Something that's going to be," said 
the Serpent. 

"What's an apple?" asked the Turtle. 

"The Fruit of the Tree," said the Ser- 
pent. 

"Oh! but you said you could tell us a 

21 " 



22 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

story; how can you, when these things 
haven't been?" 

"Ah! ha!" said the Serpent, "it would 
be easy enough to tell you a story about 
things that have been, but it takes me and 
my wisdom to tell you of things that will 
be and make up stories about them." 

"But isn't it true? Or won't it be 
true? You've got us so mixed up with 
your has beens and your will be's." 

"Well," said the Serpent, "it depends 
on what you call true. Does believing a 
thing make it true? Does doubting it 
make it false?" 

"Oh! dear! Oh! dear!" said the Tur- 
tle, "what things you do say. I can't 
think except when I'm in my house and 
when I come out I forget what I've 
thought about." 

"It's all so difficult," said the Grass- 
hopper. 

The Serpent looked very wise: "Per- 
haps it is true pragmatically." 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 23 

"Why don't you go on and tell us?" 
they said. 

"I didn't say I would, I said I could." 
He looked up from his work and He 
said, "Suggestions are dangerous things; 
now that idea will keep on growing 
through the centuries. What a mischief- 
maker you are." 



TWELFTH 

The Serpent was telling them a story. 
A sort of out loud meditation was the 
way that he told stories to the Turtle and 
the Grasshopper — he did not seem to 
always remember that they were present. 
It was as if their being there was an ex- 
cuse for talking to himself. 

The three were down on a shelf of 
rocks, quite by themselves. The Serpent 
had on his far-seeing look, his eyes glit- 
tered with the intensity of his gaze into 
the future. Very often he did not begin 
his stories, — he started in the middle and 
worked both ways. 

He said, "Now you wouldn't suppose, 
would you, that one would leave freedom 
for slavery?" 

"What's slavery?" asked the Turtle. 

"You are free and your house is a 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 25 

slave. You go where you please and 
your house goes where you will." 

"But I can't get rid of my, house." 

"No," said the Grasshopper, "you are 
the slave of your house." 

"H'm!" said the Serpent, "out of the 
mouths of Turtles and Grasshoppers 
comes wisdom." 

"Sometime, away in the future, so far 
that you need not try to imagine, there 
will be great numbers of things similar to 
this Man and this Woman, but there will 
never be two exactly the same." 

"How wonderful that will be," said the 
Grasshopper. 

"They will do many wonderful things 
and they will become the slaves of the 
things they do — they will have great wis- 
dom for the moment and much foolishness 
for the everlasting — and that which for 
many ages they will value most shall be 
valueless and for long time, their torment ; 
they will forget to count the cost except in 
Gold." 



26 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

"What's that?" said the Grasshopper. 

"What's what?" said the Serpent, com- 
ing back from the future. 

"What you just said, Gold, gold," said 
the Turtle. 

"How you disturb my train of thought. 
Gold is the value which shall be value- 
less." 

"But we don't understand; don't talk 
so over our heads. — Where is it?" 

"There isn't any," said the Serpent. 

"Oh ! dear ! Oh ! dear !" said the Grass- 
hopper. "What do you mean?" 

The voice of the Serpent sounded afar 
off . . . "It is the ardour in the 
veins of the Earth for the Sun — that 
which will be gold . . . and the 
same for the Moon will be Silver. And 
Diamonds will be the moments of ecstasy 
where the rays of the Sun pierce deep into 
the Bosom of the Earth" . . . and 
the Serpent shut his eyes and basked in 
the heat of the Sun. 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 27 

There was a silence for a little while. 

"Will there be any us?" asked the 
Grasshopper and the Turtle. 

"Many, many different kinds of you," 
said the Serpent, "and never any two the 
same." 

"Oh! Oh!! But won't He have to 
work a lot," said the Grasshopper. 

The Serpent stood up on his tail and 
made himself into a hoop — he said to 
them, "Give me a little push to start me" 
— and he rolled off out of sight among the 
rocks. . . . 

They wondered what he meant by it 
and if it was the answer to their question. 



THIRTEENTH 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper were 
talking it over together the next day. 

The Turtle said, "Did you notice? 
The Serpent went on and around at the 
same time — of course, it was the answer 
to our question." 

They sat down in the Sun together and 
waited for the Serpent. — They saw him 
coming slowly a long way off — so they 
went to meet him. They said, "You 
know that story you told us yester- 
day?" 

"Yes," he said. "That will be one of 
the sermons of the stones." 

"I thought you said it was a story — 
what is a sermon?" 

"A narcotic," said the Serpent. 

"Oh, now he's giving us another puz- 
zle," said the Grasshopper. "We want 

28 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 29 

to know the name for going around and 
on at the same time." 

"Evolution," said the Serpent. 

"I like that name," said the Turtle. 

"Yes, it makes us feel like going on, 
too," said the Grasshopper. *I say, 
won't you please make yourself into a 
hoop again and let us push you? You 
looked so interesting rolling off." 

"Not now," said the Serpent. "It 
wasn't quite easy for me to stop myself, 
I'm not feeling very well to-day." 



FOURTEENTH 

"Why are you sad?" the Turtle said, 
"I saw tears dropping from your eyes." 

"Because I am remembering when 
mortal ears will cease to hear the singing 
of the stars and when the moon no longer 
can inspire a Poet. When Poetry goes, 
Music and Art must follow on to other 
worlds." 

"And what is Poetry?" the Turtle 
asked. 

"It's what I'm saying to you now, — it 
is the Breath of Beauty and it belongs to 
primal things." 

"It's very sad," said the Grasshopper, 
wiping his eyes on his knees — and the 
Turtle sat away back in his house and 
grieved. "It's so sad for you to have to 
know the things which will be," said the 
Grasshopper. i 

30 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 31 

"Yes, it's a punishment for something 
I am going to do." 

"I should think the punishment would 
come afterwards," the Turtle said, put- 
ting his head out of his house. 

"No, it's better to have it first, so you 
can do the sin with a clear conscience." 

"But must you do it?" 

"It would be silly not to, wouldn't it, 
after I've suffered the punishment?" 

"We can't understand," said the Grass- 
hopper. 

"Perhaps it's better that we can't," 
said the Turtle, retiring into his house. 

The Serpent writhed himself slowly 
away over the rocks. But the Grasshop- 
per was not satisfied and called after him. 
"Will you please tell us what is Art?" 

"I can't stop to tell you now," said the 
Serpent, "it's too long and besides if it 
were possible to explain it would be no 
longer Art." 

"Oh! but please tell us a little," begged 



32 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

the Turtle and the Grasshopper together. 
"Why did He do the Artist dust first?" 

"Because it will take so long for it to 
ripen." 

"Couldn't He have made the Man out 
of the Artist dust?" asked the Turtle. 

"It would not have been wise — it would 
not be easy to make a Man out of the 
Artist dust." 

"Well, then, why didn't He wait and 
make the Artists out of the Man dust?" 
asked the Grasshopper. 

"You wouldn't understand if I told 
you," said the Serpent. "It wouldn't do 
to make Artists out of ordinary Man 
dust, they have not much in common." 



FIFTEENTH 

There had been rain for many days. 

"You are looking so unhappy, please 
tell us what you are thinking about," said 
the Turtle. 

"You wouldn't understand," said the 
Serpent. 

"Oh! try us," said the Grasshopper, 
"sometimes it's much more interesting 
when you can't understand." 

"Yes," said the Turtle, "there seems to 
be so much more in it than there is, one 
can imagine all sorts of stories about the 
things that might be, and are not." 

"That's along the line of Logic," said 
the Serpent. 

"Logic! what's that?" said the Turtle. 

"Oh!" said the Serpent, rubbing his 
head gently with the tip of his tail, "it's 
just another name for untruth — some- 

33 



34 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

thing that is only true in that it's always 
false." 

"Oh! dear!" said the Grasshopper, "it's 
another of his ensembles. You shouldn't 
have bothered him, you ought to have let 
him alone." 

"It is false because it never takes the 
unknown quantity into consideration. It 
does not acknowledge the unknown quan- 
tity and that is the only thing of which 
one can be sure." 

"Oh! what is it? What is it?" said the 
Turtle and the Grasshopper together. 

"It is unknown," said the Serpent. 

"H'm!" they said, "isn't it interesting? 
Now we'll go and imagine things until 
the Sun comes out." 



SIXTEENTH 

The Man and the Woman were to- 
gether on the rocks — far out on the rocks 
. . . on the edge of the world, and 
they dared to look over . . . They 
wondered, — they wondered deeply, of 
endings and beginnings. 

The Serpent came behind them and he 
said, "Do not look over, — it causes dizzi- 
ness, the things which you might see 
would cause it and you may lose your 
balance." 

"But," the Woman said, "I have great 
curiosity to know about Beginnings and 
the End." 

"Yes," said the Man. "I too. What 
is the end?" 

The Serpent said, "Observe" — and 
when they looked, he took his tail into his 
mouth and made himself a circle. 

35 



SEVENTEENTH 

It was the next day and the Man and 
the Woman were again upon the rocks. 

The Woman said, "I have decided, I 
will look." 

They crept away down on the rocks 
until they could go down no further. 

Man held her by the ankle and she 
reached over and looked far down, and 
when he helped her up she trembled and 
she could not tell him what she saw. 
There was a great! dread upon her for she 
had seen that which she could not tell and 
she possessed a secret knowledge. 

The Serpent came behind them, and he 
said, "You have seen that which has given 
you intuition and you never will know 
perfect happiness again." The Serpent 
said to Man, "Will you look too? The 
Woman has another sense." 

36 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 37 

But Man refused to look — and then 
there came between them and the deep 
unknown a veil — so none could ever look 
again. 



EIGHTEENTH 

He rested on the rocks and Woman sat 
beside Him. She looked far off across 
the waters and she sighed. And when she 
turned she saw Man coming toward her 
on the rocks, and hanging from his hand 
was the dead Bird, the same that found 
them that time of the great Tempest. 
Man had killed it. 

The Woman asked him why he had 
killed the Bird. He answered, "Because 
it flew so high. I called it and it came 
into my hand, so then I killed it." 

The Woman took the Bird from him 
and warmed it in her bosom. She wrapt 
it 'round with her long hair and sang in a 
low voice a song that had the movement 
of a wave. There came a look of long- 
ing in her eyes and when He saw the 
look, He touched the Bird so that it 

38 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 39 

fluttered against her heart and lived. 
So then He said, "This thing shall 
make your happiness, — all through the 
ages you shall sing the cradle song and 
while you sing the wings of love shall 
cover you." 



NINETEENTH 

The Woman sat alone upon the rocks. 
She felt the flutter of the dove against 
her heart and still she sang the cradle 
song. Man called to her to walk with 
him among the dangerous places along 
the edges, but she would not go. 

He said to Man, "She will not go with 
you again along the brink of chasms in 
the dangerous places, but she will wait 
for you and comfort you when you re- 
turn." 

Day after day she rested in the sunny 
places on the rocks. There came the look 
of Future in her eyes, and when the night 
closed down she sang the cradle song to 
the dove that nestled to her heart. 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper 
played near her feet. He came and 
talked with her and Man was wandering 
far among the chasms. 

40 



TWENTIETH 

High on a ledge of rock the Serpent 
coiled and basked and chanted to the Sun. 

"Oh! Thou giver of Life— Oh! Thou 
Sun, Creator of Love, of Love. 

"Oh! Thou Sun, Giver'of all, Giver of 
Life, of Love — Giver of warmth, Giver 
of rest,— Oh! Thou Sun!" 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper list- 
ened and understood, for they, too, loved 
the Sun. 



41 



TWENTY-FIRST 

"But," said the Turtle, "how can we 
forget things, if we do not know them?" 

This was because the Serpent was so 
affected about something which he was 
seeing in the Future — and he was saying 
that the only way he could be happy was 
to forget. 

"Then," said the Grasshopper, "the 
only way to be happy is to know things 
and forget them?" 

"Why!" said the Turtle, "that would 
be the same as if you never knew them. 
It's awfully hard to understand . . . 
I'm going back in my house and think 
about it." 

"What is it makes us want to know 
things when it makes us unhappy to know 
them, and we have to forget them to be 
happy again? The harder I try to forget 

42 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 43 

things the more I can't," said the Grass- 
hopper. 

"It is curiosity," said the Serpent. 

"Then it must be curiosity that makes 
all the trouble," said the Turtle, putting 
his head out of his house. — "But how?" 

"Yes, why?" said the Grasshopper. 



TWENTY-SECOND 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper won- 
dered continually about what would hap- 
pen next and how things would end. 

The Serpent said, "I have told you 
many times that there is no end and 
{neither are there beginnings, because 
things evolve from other things." 

"Oh! Oh!" said the Turtle and the 
Grasshopper together, "this is too much. 
You cannot make us believe that there are 
no beginnings, — because, how would 
things ever get started?" 

The Serpent said, "We shall keep on 
going around and around and around 
faster and faster and smoother and 
smoother until all the edges become worn 
away. — We shall whirl and whirl faster 
and faster until the Sun whirls us into his 
centre and absorbs us into himself, and we 

44 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 45 

shall keep on whirling with him forever 
and ever and ever — World without end." 
And the Serpent stood on his tail and 
whirled in the light of the Sun. 

"Oh!" said the Turtle, "how dizzy I 
am." 

"Me, too," said the Grasshopper, "I, 
too, am dizzy. What is dizziness?" 

"It is an affliction of weak minds," said 
the Serpent. 



TWENTY-THIRD 

He shaped Flamingoes from the rose- 
ate clouds of dawn, and sent them flying 
far. When they returned at setting of 
the Sun, the sky was red with them. 

He sent by them the grains of dust 
which held the germs of life, to distant 
places. They were the germs of vegeta- 
tion which the Sun warmed into life. 

And when Man went among the chasms 
searching as was his wont, he found a 
place where soft grass grew, and all the 
place was soothing to the feet and pleas- 
ant to the eye. In parts the grass grew 
tall and large and spread out mighty at 
the top, — and the Flamingoes rested in 
the Branches of the grass. Man said to 
them, "What place is this?" They said, 
"It is a dwelling place." 



46 



TWENTY-FOURTH 

The Serpent coiled where the Sun 
shone hottest on the rocks. He lifted up 
his head toward the Sun and saw the 
Woman lying her full length sleeping in 
the light. He gazed a long time with his 
diamond eyes until she came awake. 

She said, "I have been dreaming. I 
dreamed I was a creature of the Sun." 
She closed her eyes again and sighed. 

The Serpent said, "Do you remem- 
ber?" Again he said, "Do you remem- 
ber?" 

"No — No," she said, "except the dream, 
— and yet, and yet, sometimes when you 
are chanting to the Sun your chants of 
love there's something draws me, I almost 
can remember, only 'tis far away . . . 
What is it? I was not what I am . . . 
What was it? 'Tis something about the 

47 



48 BOOK OF THE SERPENT 

Sun and you — no, no, I would not know, 
it makes me shiver as when I looked into 
the chasms." 

The Serpent said, "What is it when you 
hear me chanting to the Sun, what is it 
makes you shiver? Is it because the 
Earth is cold? Come, chant your wor- 
ship to the Sun with me." 

The Woman said, "Do you remember 
that time I looked into the chasms how 
strong Man held me by the ankle? He is 
not here, but that I can remember how 
strong he held me." 

"No," she said, "I will not chant the 
Sun with you lest I remember all — But I 
will sing my cradle song and wait for 
Man." 



TWENTY-FIFTH 

And Man returned to where the 
Woman waited on the rocks. She saw 
him coming and she went to meet him, 
and when she came to him it made him 
glad. 

She said, "I have a gift for you" — and 
then she placed the dove which she had 
held so long against her heart within his 
arms. 

Man said, "It is like you." 
"Oh, no!" she said, "it is like you." 
He said, "It is like both of you." 
And Man gave Woman back the dove 
and made a circle of his arm around them. 
"The dove is ours," he said. "Come, 
let us go, for I have found a dwelling 
place." 



49 



TWENTY-SIXTH 

"You said one day 'Nothing is lost.' 
Do you remember all the Artist dust and 
all the Mother dust and many, many 
other sorts of dust that He prepared, and 
how in the great Tempest it was blown 
away? What was the use of making it, 
for it is lost?" 

"Yes," said the Turtle, "please explain, 
for surely it is lost." 

The Serpent smiled. He said: "Oh ye 
of the short sight — logicians of your time, 
the Wind of the great Tempest was but a 
servant of the Future. All things are ser- 
vants of the Future." 

"But how?— Explain," the Turtle said. 

"The dust was whirled and blown to 
every portion of this star." 

"You said it was the Earth." 

"It is a Star — and when the time is ripe 
— the Sun will give it life." 

50 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 51 

"The Sun?" they asked. "Wherefore 
the Sun? Why do you chant the Sun?" 

"And what else should I chant?" the 
Serpent said. "I chant the centre, with- 
out it nothing — nothing before and noth- 
ing after." 



TWENTY-SEVENTH 

The Turtle and the Grasshopper were 
talking together on the rocks. They saw 
the Serpent coming. 

Now said the Grasshopper, "You ask 
him first." 

So when the Serpent had come near, the 
Turtle said, "You told us that the Sun is 
all, nothing before and nothing after — 
then — what is He?" 

"Many will ask that question," said the 
Serpent, "and the answers will be as 
many." 

"Tell us — tell us — why did He want 
Woman back that time of the great 
Tempest?" 

"Why not have made another?" 

The Serpent smiled — "She is His 
Masterpiece — one never makes another." 

"And will there be no other Woman?" 

52 



BOOK OF THE SERPENT 53 

"There will be Women," said the Ser- 
pent. 

"Why do you speak in riddles? You 
are so hard to understand," — the Grass- 
hopper chirped happily, "And what are 
you?" 

The Serpent slowly writhed himself 
away and as he went there was a sound 
of laughing which echoed from the 
rocks 

When it had ceased they said, "Come, 
let us go and watch Him at His work. 
He will be lonely now His Masterpiece 
has gone. . . . Let us forget the 
things the Serpent told us . . lest we 
become as wise as he." 

" 'Tis true," the Turtle said, "if we keep 
on remembering we may become as wise 
as he and suffer the punishment for things 
that we may do. Let us forget for fear 
the memory of the Future may come to 
us." 

"Yes," said the Grasshopper, "it will 
be happier so . . . let us forget." 



NCV 13 1912 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 



